Hoping to create new inroads into the Chinese market, Starbucks last week introduced a social gifting feature via popular social app WeChat’s payment service. Today we use a new question in our research to underline the potential of this partnership.
The Chinese mobile payments space is dominated by two key players – WeChat Pay (33% have used this service) and AliPay (on 39%) – with smartphones having had a profound impact upon how these consumers choose to carry out everyday commerce activities.
Indeed, mobile payments in China play a major role in this market’s financial infrastructure. By tapping into the popularity and convenience of a service like WeChat Pay (only a QR code is needed to facilitate a transaction), this will allow Starbucks to meet the Chinese consumer on their level, via payment methods which are locally relevant.
